St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-01-03
ECONOMIES IN COURT.
The Supreme court of the United
States to Pass ora a Queer pennsyl-
VanIa Sect.

The supreme court OF the United
States TO Pass On a Queer pennsyl-
vania Sect.
New York Sun.
George Hoadly, former governor of
Ohio, is among the prominent lawyers
whom supreme court business has brought
! to the city. The stories that his fortune
| was wrecked by the defalcation of the
assignee of Archbishop Purcell and by
the expenses of politics are refuted
by his happy expression and by his
statement that he has made more
money than ever before in his life during
the professional interval that has ensued
since his retirement from politics. Gov.
Hoadly appears in the supreme court to-
morrow in case interesting not only in its
record facts. but from the millions in
volved.
The case is that of the executor of Elias
Speidel against Jacob Henrici and
Jonathan LEM, trustees of the Har-
mony society of Beaver county,
Pa. 1t is an appeal from
the United States circuit court for the
| Western district of Pennsylvania, where Il
demurrer setting up the statute of limita-
| tation was sustained against Speidel. The
| case involves the whole history of the pc
culiar community known as the Econo-
mites, who own the village Of Harmony,
near Pittsburg. Tits a suit to dissolve the
| trust by which Henrici and LEM hold all
| the vast property of this community, and
| to distribute the assets.
The bill sets out a remarkable record of
religious imposture. In the early part of
this century George Rapp, yintner, loomed
up in the kingdom of Wurtemburg as a
clandestine preacher of great force, finally
obtaining such unlimited influence over more
than one hundred pious but uneducated
| families. including the parents of Elias p
Speidel, that they accepted him as their
priest and prophet, sold all their possessions
and emigrated, under his leadership, to Amer
| lea, settling as colony upon wild tract
in Pennsylvania, for the purpose Of fitting
| themselves for and awaiting the second ad-
vent of the Lord, which Rapp said was i'm
| mediately at hand.
| He prevailed upon them, by threats of
eternal damnation, to lay all their means at
| his feet. in imitation of the early Chris
| tianS, and to become members of COM
munity in which they were reduced
to a state Of abject depend
ence upon Rapp as their king, the
pretended mouthpiece of God and the medi-
| ator of their salvation. He afterward led
them to abjufe matrimony and the married
| persons to break family ties and live as sim
gle. Spedel was born in the community
in 1907. His parents had been among the
original emigrants. For twenty years his
| labor contributed to the accumulations. In
| 1881 he married and had to depart from
| Harmony.
1t is charged that Rapp, who was trustee
| from 1904 until his death i'll 1S47, secreted
| $500, 600 from the fund, and this amount
was omitted from the statement of assets.
| The fund is said to have now reached
$4,000. 600. Only a score of unmarried
| people now reside in Harmony, and Jacob
Henrici and his huge carpet-bag is a spec
| tacle when he visits Pittsburg. Just how
much the sons of Speidel. who are the ex-
ecutors. would get if they won the suit is
quite a problem. His parents in 1904
brought $1,000 from Wurtemburg and
placed it in the community fund, but Rapp
| destroyed all records Of original contribu-
| tons in 1918.
An interesting feature of the litigation is
| that tproceeds on double basis, seemingly
| involving paradox. A dissolution of the
| trust is demanded because it is predicated
on religious. fraud, and is illegal because
against public policy If the trust is valid
dissolution is asked because there was no
consideration, and any beneficiary can de-
mand dissolution of it at any time. If the
court refuses to dissolve the trust where
will it go when the last of the communal
survivors dies?